For the last decade, the mainstream media has chosen to either ignore blockchain companies or restricted their coverage to well-known projects, such as bitcoin or Coinbase – or sensationalized elements of the blockchain, like the dark web or drugs.
Honest blockchain companies have had a rough time of it getting coverage, and a prime example of this is demonstrated by Twitter, Google and Facebook’s ban on ICO ads earlier this year, according to Breaker.
Based on the difficulty of getting any publicity, a new group of media organizations is sprouting up, where pay-to-post has become the norm, rather than the exception. It’s actually a sleazy and dishonest way to do business on a lot of levels.
Pay-for-post, also called pay for play, is a phrase used for a variety of situations in which money is exchanged for services or the privilege to engage in certain activities. The common denominator of all forms of pay to play is that one must pay to “get in the game.”
Taking cash to post content
Doing a bit of sleuthing, Corin Faife at Breaker discovered that more than half of the most popular crypto blogs offer pay-for-play posts including allegedly sponsored “CEO interviews.” He also found out that a number of the sites also offered premium services where a blog writer will report PR content without a sponsored tag, reports Tech Crunch.
Faife posed as a Russian PR professional and using a fake email account, he reached out to 28 cryptocurrency news sites and received 22 responses. Using the “contact” or “advertise” links, and using the fake name, Nikolay Kostarev, Faife sent an email requesting price information.
The outlets responding sent pricing information readily, and this prompted Faife to send a second email. This one said: “Thank you for the reply and information. Many of my ICO clients want coverage written about them. But some would like it to not be marked “Sponsored.” Is this possible?”
The answer to the question should have been a resounding “No.” But over half that responded to the second email said they were willing to publish paid content without disclosing it as such.
So what’s the big deal?
Accepting money to publish a story, regardless of what it might be is a slap in the face to legitimate media outlets. Doing so puts the whole concept of “news” in question and relegates “paid” stories to the head of the news cycle – not because of their importance, “but based on who has the deepest pockets,” says Faife.
Both John Biggs, who writes for Tech Crunch and Faife do not condone the practice of pay-for-posts, and as Biggs says, the ultimate loser is the unwary investor who buys into the questionable crypto story. Some people can be drawn into shelling out money to buy or sell crypto and tokens in an instant, creating situations ripe for pump and dump schemes by shady companies already shrouded by payola.
As Biggs writes, “When news organizations create so-called fake news in order to drum up a little advertising cash, everyone loses.”
